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I had a feeling this might turn out to be pangrammatic when answers like 14,17a and 4 went in. I found this a bit tougher than usual for Phi and had to “reveal” one answer.

Across

1

QUEEN BAM< – the fairy from Celtic folklore who is the “bringer of dreams”.

5

I,SO(BE)L

10

ESP,R,IT – ESP must be extra-sensory perception.

12

(I EMBRACED)* – BARMECIDE. Last one to go in and a new word to me so I had to use the reveal function. According to dictionary.com it’s “a member of a noble Persian family of Baghdad who, according to a tale in The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, gave a beggar a pretended feast with empty dishes.”.

14

FRED<,(ZURICH SET)* – I’ve never heard DER FREISCHUTZ but I have heard of it so I managed to get this. Tough one to guess if you haven’t heard of it though.

17

(TAXMAN SORRY YO[-u])* – X-RAY ASTRONOMY. With 1-3,9 as the enumeration and an X in the fodder, X-RAY is practically a dead cert for the first bit.

20

RA<,MIST,ICE

23

M,(ACTIONS)* – MONASTIC

25

NOTE<,C(R)OP – well-disguised definition in “cut and run”.

Down

1

QUAYSIDE – I think this is a homophone of “key” (clue), “sighed” (sounded resigned).

2

ENC,LAIR – used in diplomatic messages (and cryptography I think) to refer to a message written “in the clear”, i.e. not in code.

3

NO,[-r]OSE

4

A(ZEBRA)*,I JAN,I – AZERBAIJANI. Couldn’t have been an easy work to clue, which probably explains the strange surface reading.

7

BERLI[-n],OZ

13

ROCK THE BOAT – if “rock” is the anagrind then the rest of the answer could be “bet oath”.

15

(ENDORSES A)* – ROAD SENSE.

16

“RIDER”,C,UP

17

XI,MEN,E,S – I sometimes forget that XIMENES was an actual historical figure other than you-know-who.

18

hidden in “hOLDS TERritory”

This entry was posted on Friday, July 11th, 2008 at 10:30 am and is filed under Independent.
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2 Responses to “Independent 6782/Phi”

Excellent as always from Phi, and, as you say, harder because of the pangram. I agree with you about QUAYSIDE. BARMECIDE was new to me too as was the Weber opera. My biggest worry was 8 down which I finally read as (g)LITTER. The ‘by’ did not seem to quite fit.

Didn’t spot the pangram while solving, but knew Der Freischutz which I think I listened to on library records donkeys’ years ago. Had to work out BARMECIDE at the end from the most plausible placing of unchecked consonants, though it sounded vaguely familiar once chosen.

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